On December 21, 1994, President Clinton and Vice President Gore established an initiative that would dramatically improve the landscapes of many impoverished American communities. They designated 105 distressed communities across the Nation as Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities (EZs and ECs) through the EZ/EC Initiative. In January 1999, the initiative was expanded through a second round of designations to include Cincinnati as one of 20 new urban and rural Empowerment Zones and 20 new rural Enterprise Communities. Since the inception of the program, the EZ/EC Initiative has been a catalyst for change, improving the lives of thousands of people in America's most distressed rural and urban areas.